The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for producing a customized container of cigarettes.
Cigarettes are produced and sold in a wide variety of types. For example, different types of tobacco having unique characteristic flavors and aromas, such as Burley, Oriental and Virginia tobacco, are used alone or in varying amounts in tobacco blends to produce brands of cigarettes having different characteristic flavors. In addition, both plain cigarettes and cigarettes having many different types of filter tips are manufactured as well as cigarettes of differing length, circumference, strength of flavor, total particulate matter delivery and nicotine delivery. Furthermore, cigarettes containing flavorings such as menthol are also available.
Conventionally, consumers have only been able to obtain cigarettes of a particular type by purchasing a pack containing cigarettes of that type alone. In normal production, cigarettes of a single type are placed and sealed in a pack at a factory and the finished pack is then shipped to a remote point of sale such as a vending machine or retail outlet where it is purchased by the consumer. Consequently, customers wishing to smoke different types of cigarettes on different occasions have typically had to purchase more than one pack of cigarettes.
EP-A-0 141 629 discloses a process and apparatus for producing a pack of cigarettes comprising two distinct groups of cigarettes, each group comprising cigarettes of a different type. The two distinct groups of cigarettes are dispensed from a single hopper which is divided into two compartments by a central partition, each compartment being fed with cigarettes of only one type. Groups of cigarettes dispensed from each of the two compartments of the hopper are wrapped separately before being packed together in a single conventional cigarette pack.
Although the process and apparatus described in EP-A-0 141 629 enable the production in a factory of packs comprising two different types of cigarettes, they do not enable a cigarette pack to be produced in situ at the point of sale in response to an individual order. Consequently, the process and apparatus described in EP-A-0 141 629 still suffer from the disadvantage that they do not allow the contents of a container of cigarettes to be tailored or customized in accordance with an individual customer's particular tastes or requirements.